Newly released Satoshi emails reveal treasure trove of early Bitcoin legend
Many insights into the cryptocurrency's early days were revealed when Marty Malmi, an early associate of Bitcoin creator Satoshi Nakamoto, published 120 email correspondence between the two on GitHub on February 23rd.
My email correspondence with Satoshi from 2009-2011: https://t.co/jyoX8gXckp
— Martti Malmi (@marttimalmi) February 23, 2024
Nakamoto's true identity remains a point of speculation in the larger cryptocurrency and blockchain community. However, emails recently published by Malmi on GitHub were initially presented as evidence in a London court filing by the Crypto Open Patent Alliance against Craig Wright, claiming to be Nakamoto.
Based on Cointelegraph's cursory inspection of the emails, there are no smoking guns or mythical revelations that would immediately illuminate Satoshi's true identity. But for historians and enthusiasts of Bitcoin history, the emails include many fascinating quotes and a general air of Satoshi-ness — the same straightforward, simple-but-general, no-nonsense style that permeates the Bitcoin white paper.
Satoshi believed #Bitcoin mining would be less labor intensive than legacy banking systems.
Note: This is his best new quote so far pic.twitter.com/FsCxJlj8Xf
— Rizzo (@pete_rizzo_) February 23, 2024
Satoshi on “cryptocurrency”.
While it has long been known that Satoshi himself came up with the term “cryptocurrency”, an email sent to Malmi on June 11, 2009 seems to have put a big hole in this theory.
By Satoshi:
“Someone came up with the term ‘cryptocurrency'. […] Maybe that's the word we should use when describing bitcoin, do you like it?”
Thanks to Malmi, he replied, “Sounds good,” and sounded more interesting than “digital P2P money.”
Satoshi on Anonymous
Malmi's Emails Reveal Satoshi's Anonymity, What It Means, and How Misinformation Threats Could Help Bitcoin
As Satoshi wrote in one email:
“I think we should focus on the anonymous angle. With the popularity of Bitcoin addresses rather than sending by IP, we cannot guarantee anonymity. It is possible to be anonymous but you have to be careful.
The email continues to predict the development of blockchain forensics:
“If we don't set expectations in advance to warn people to be careful if someone digs into their transaction history and people start exposing what they thought was anonymous information, the response will be worse.”
